North East Body Psychology

Prof Lynda Boothroyd and Dr Elizabeth Evans run research at Durham on body perception and body ideals in children and adults. This research includes cognitive, developmental and a large cross-cultural perspective. See below for recent and ongoing research.

Projects

Television and Beauty Ideals in Rural Nicaragua

This research project brought together Psychologists and Anthropologists to study the impacts of television on beauty ideals in rural Nicaragua.Project Leader: Prof Lynda Boothroyd, Durham UniversityCo-Investigator: Prof Martin Tovee, University of LincolnSteering committee: Prof Robert Barton, Dr Mike Burt, Dr Liz Evans, Dr Mark Jamieson Research associate: Dr Jean-Luc JuckerDoctoral researcher: Dr Tracey Thornborrow Funding: This research is funded by a Leverhulme Trust […]

Body image interventions in rapidly developing populations.

This Wellcome funded project will be starting to explore with local populations, how best to foster body image resilience, and prevent the development of eating disorders, in populations gaining their first access to mass media.

Cognitive Underpinnings of Body Ideals

In collaboration with Prof Martin Tovee and Dr Thomas Pollet, these studies are seeking to understand how cognitive processes may contribute to the way in which we represent and express perceptions of body shape attractiveness. For instance: different forms of learning may both contribute to changes in body weight preferences; dissonance based interventions may affect implicit thin-bias

Body Ideals and Body Image Across Development

These studies examine body image and body size ideals in children and young people. For instance: sociocultural pressures drive disordered eating attitudes from an early age.